Hi All - does anyone know exactly what needs to be engraved on a SBR that is held by a trust? My understanding is that if an individual owns an SBR, the lower receiver needs to be engraved with the owner's name, city & state.

What do you engrave when the SBR is held in a trust? The name of the trust? The name of the trustee? Both?

The whole point of the legal requirement to engrave the maker's info is to match up the firearm with the maker, particularly if the firearm is ever recovered at a crime scene or after a theft. Initials are meaningless; a last name at least gives LE a place to start researching and tracing. Thus, I believe the last name should be engraved to fulfill BATFE regulations.

So in your case, I would engrave:

TA & JM Fletcher TrustTampa FL

You might even get by with:

Fletcher TrustTampa FL

Note that periods, commas, etc. are not needed, unless removing them makes the wording difficult to understand or changes the meaning.

The whole point of the legal requirement to engrave the maker's info is to match up the firearm with the maker, particularly if the firearm is ever recovered at a crime scene or after a theft. Initials are meaningless; a last name at least gives LE a place to start researching and tracing. Thus, I believe the last name should be engraved to fulfill BATFE regulations.

So in your case, I would engrave:

TA & JM Fletcher TrustTampa FL

You might even get by with:

Fletcher TrustTampa FL

Note that periods, commas, etc. are not needed, unless removing them makes the wording difficult to understand or changes the meaning.

While I'm new at this, I'm going to somewhat disagree. My lower is stamped...

XXX RLTCity State

"XXX" is my initials but is also exactly how I titled my trust. That is also exactly how I listed it on the Form1, both in field 3b and 4h. My form1 got approved with no problem so apparently they don't have an issue with it but maybe the difference here is that this is the "title" or name of my trust?

The whole point of the legal requirement to engrave the maker's info is to match up the firearm with the maker, particularly if the firearm is ever recovered at a crime scene or after a theft. Initials are meaningless; a last name at least gives LE a place to start researching and tracing. Thus, I believe the last name should be engraved to fulfill BATFE regulations.

So in your case, I would engrave:

TA & JM Fletcher TrustTampa FL

You might even get by with:

Fletcher TrustTampa FL

Note that periods, commas, etc. are not needed, unless removing them makes the wording difficult to understand or changes the meaning.

While I'm new at this, I'm going to somewhat disagree. My lower is stamped...

XXX RLTCity State

"XXX" is my initials but is also exactly how I titled my trust. That is also exactly how I listed it on the Form1, both in field 3b and 4h. My form1 got approved with no problem so apparently they don't have an issue with it but maybe the difference here is that this is the "title" or name of my trust?

As airgunner stated, I think that the initials/abrev. of the trust name is ok in the engraving as long as it is noted that way on the Form 1.

Luck favors the prepared.

"This republic was not established by cowards; and cowards will not preserve it." - Elmer Davis

If your trust itself is called the ABC Trust, then yes, you engrave "ABC Trust".

But if your Trust is the Albert Beuford Cook Revokable Living Trust, engraving "ABC RLT" or even "ABC Trust" does not meet federal firearms identification requirements, unless the maker has an approved, signed letter of variance from BATFE.

Markings are a means of identication of the maker, and federal marking regs only allow "recognized" abbreviations -- that means abbreviations that everyone will immediately understand. There is no need to spell out "New York" when everyone recognizes "NY"; similarly, "Corp" can be used for "Corporation" and "Inc" for Incorporated.

"RLT" is not a term in common usage -- walk up to 100 people on the street and ask them what RLT means, and 99 out of 100 times, they will say it's something that goes good with fries. Therefore, it does not qualify as a "recognized" abbreviation.

OTOH, "trust" is a recognized term, and there is no relevance to the recognition process of whether the trust revokable or unrevokable, living or dead. Thus, an NFA firearm made by a Revokable Living Trust may be engraved as "trust" but not as "RLT."

Now, if your trust is so famous on a national scope that when you ask people anywhere what or who "ABC" is, they will say it's Albert Beuford Cook, then it is a recognized abbreviation that meets federal regs. Otherwise, you need to spell it out. AB Cook is acceptable, because they can go to the state and city designated by the engraving, and start looking for someone named Cook whose first name starts with an A.

But "ABC" alone does not meet the marking regulation, because it is mandated for identification purposes, and as an unrecognized abbreviation, it does not meet the identification goal.

Having been dealing with NFA regs for decades, I'm not new to this confusing mess. And the above is my painfully educated opinion.